By: Jessica Mills and Kelly Mulligan
Lights and cameras are in place and Stevenson students are the producers, directors, and stars of the sixth annual 72-Hour Film Festival. Canon Inc and the university’s Film & Moving Image club (FMI club) invited students of all majors to participate in this 3-day event.
Students began filming last Friday, November 12 with restrictions on genre, space, and production. Films are judged by a guest panel followed by a screening on Friday, November 19 at 7:00 PM.
Students select their own groups they are working in for the film festival. Lauren Brightwell, Treasurer of the FMI club, said “Groups can be one to three students.” The groups registered Friday at 2:00 p.m. and were assigned a genre for their films.
The 72 hours officially started after all groups were assigned individual genres. Junior film major Zachary Garrigus said, “[Participants] have those three days, and only those three days, to write, direct, shoot, and cast.”
Students work tirelessly to ensure these tasks are completed within the allotted 72 hours.
In addition to adhering to a specific genre, films must follow a set of guidelines set in place for the festival. “All shots have to be handheld”, said Brightwell, “You can’t use tripods.” Despite that restriction, Garrigus said, “shoulder rigs are allowed.”
There are also limitations for the actors involved in the film. “There can only be one maskless actor on screen at a time,” said Garrigus, “If there is more than one actor, the other actors have to wear a mask.” Students were encouraged to be creative with this stipulation. Brightwell suggested, “It could be a Jason mask or a Batman mask- just something on the face.”
The last guideline relates to the contents of the film. “Either a Shakespeare quote or the color red has to play a pivotal role,” said Garrigus. Students have the option of which element they include, or they can do both.
All films were completed on Monday, November 15 at 2:00 p.m. The collection of short films was judged by a panel and fun prizes are going to be awarded to the winners. “We have a revolving set of judges that come through every year,” said Christopher Ernst, advisor for the FMI club, “we try to get an alumnus from the film program and a professional person from the industry.”
This year’s judges are alumna Robin Christine Farrell, cinematographer Quinn Woverton, and President Dr. Elliot Hirshman. “We’ve had President Dr. Hirshman as our guest judge for the past four years,” said Chris Ernst.
If you’re interested in attending the screening in person in the School of Design Soundstage (SD101) you can register at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F9HRDFT
If you’re interested in attending the event virtually on Bluejeans you can use this link: https://bluejeans.com/123532603/2652